RMWB Wildfire Recovery Information

The Municipality is pleased to share a correspondence letter between Mayor Melissa Blake of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, and Danielle Larivee, Minister of Municipal Affairs for the Government of Alberta and a separate correspondence letter Shane Schreiber, Managing Director, Alberta Emergency Management Agency shared with Mayor Blake.

In conversation with both the Government of Alberta and Alberta Emergency Management Agency, the Municipality has clarified a number of details regarding flood mitigation plans in Waterways, including:

The demountable flood wall is a potentially viable mitigation option, provided that it is built to a minimum of the 1:100 design flood level and can be shown to be viable in an ice-jam scenario.

The GOA does not require building-level flood proofing measures in addition to 1:100 level structural mitigation.

The Municipality remains potentially eligible for grant funding under the Alberta Community Resilience Program (ACRP) for our mitigation program.

The Municipality remains potentially eligible for Disaster Recovery Program (DRP) funding should a flood occur prior to the completion of any community mitigation system.

Alberta Environment and Parks will continue to work with the Municipality to explore the engineering viability of the demountable floodwall.

On Tuesday, October 4, Council voted to remove restrictions on rebuilding in Waterways. The amendments to the land use bylaw allow residents to rebuild their homes to their pre-existing construction standard anywhere in Waterways. Council also approved extending the Wildfire Recovery Overlay to all of Waterways. Restrictions on any new development in the Waterways flood plain, which were put in place following new provincial flood legislation in 2013, are removed.